Mewar Royal Flays CBFC Over Sanjay Leel Bhansali’s Padmavati

Mahendra Singh Mewar, the 76th Maharana of the Mewar dynasty and a former Lok Sabha member, on Sunday said the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has pulled off a public deception with the certification of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati.

In a letter penned to Minister of Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Mahendra Singh has expressed concern over the “questionable conduct and consequences” of giving Padmavati a U/A certificate even subject to modifications.

“The CBFC, through Prasoon Joshi, has endorsed a film that misrepresents revered heroic characters and one that is likely to cause social unrest… This public deception pulled off on his watch suggests incompetence and/or complicity. Such hurried certification and continuing misrepresentations can only bring disrepute to the CBFC,” Mahendra Singh wrote in the letter — a copy of which is with IANS.

On Saturday, the CBFC announced its decision to certify Padmavati as U/A after five suggested modifications — including a title change to Padmavat — are carried out by the filmmakers.

The decision was taken in a meeting in the presence of Joshi, and with a special panel comprising Arvind Singh from Udaipur, historian Chandramani Singh and Professor K.K. Singh of Jaipur University.

Earlier, Mahendra Singh’s son Maharajkumar Vishvaraj Singh had said that he was approached by Joshi to join the panel. But after Vishvaraj Singh asked for some clarifications, he didn’t receive any replies.

Mahendra Singh expressed dissent: “One set of panellists was invited and then the film was clandestinely shown to another set.”